High Tea with Real Good Yummiez at Cafe Mangii

GTFL’s ( Godrej Tyson Foods Ltd) Real Good Yummiez recently arranged a blogger’s meet in Cafe Mangii,Bangalore for the launch of its two new products – Jalapeno Cheese Bites and Macaroni Cheese Nuggets.

Celebrity Chef Michael Swamy was present at the event (Café Mangii – Bangalore,Orion Mall) to prepare these two interesting high-tea snacking dishes out of these two products.

The event was held on July 23, 2016 (4 PM – 7 PM). I got an exclusive invite from FBAI to attend this product lunch cum demo event.

GTFL is a joint venture between Godrej Agrovet and the US based Tyson Inc specializing in affordable frozen food . Godrej Tyson through it’s ‘ Real Good Yummiez’ brand is a dominant player in the frozen and ready to cook segment. Apart from frozen or ready to cook products, Godrej also sells processed poultry through their ‘ Real’ Brand. Their ‘ Real Good Yummiez’ is all about brightening any and every occasion. The Yummiez brand of products includes :

Ready to Eat Chicken Delights

Ready to Eat Vegetarian Delights

Frozen Raw Chicken

Frozen Raw Chicken

Their newest offering ‘Jalapeno Cheese Bites’ and ‘ Macaroni Cheese Nuggests’ targets the premium category / healthy classes who prefers to opt for a light meal during evening time 4 pm to 6 pm. It often paired with a mug of tea, a portion of bread, Vegetables, cheese and meat. Those who goes for high tea mostly skip their dinner after high tea.This concept is also gaining popularity among all classes but here people are looking for easy and filling snacks to go with their cup of tea so that they don’t have to skip their dinner. So ‘Real Good Yummiez’ clearly want to tap their potential customers by launching these two variety of ‘ready to consume’ Vegetarian snacks :

Jalapeno Cheese Bites ( Spicy bite sized Jalapeno and gooey melted Cheese is pleasing to the palate and one can’t resist the urge to go for repeated helping of the same)

Macaroni Cheese Nuggets ( this classic combo can be used as a filler inside sandwich and burgers and entirely kid friendly as this is non spicy)

Renowned Culinary Specialist, Chef Michael Swamy came all the way from Mumbai to rustle up two exciting High Tea Snacks with this two newly lunched Godrej Yummiez Vegetarian Products.

First one ‘ Bruschetta with Asian Pesto’ using Jalapeno Cheese Bites

For this Italian Bread or Baguette or crusty Loaf is used. First the baguette is cut into slighly thick 3 to 4 inch diagonal slices and keep aside. A spread of asian pesto ( a blend of basil leaves, coriander leaves, green chilly and walnut) is applied on each slices. In the mean while take a pan. Heat it. Pour one to two tbsp of olive oil. Add some cube shaped chopped mushrooms and saute in a high heat. Lastly add a pinch of salt and black pepper for flavour. Add this sauted chopped mushroom’s on top of the brushetta. After this deep fry the Jalapeno Cheese Bites using a deep bottom pan and oil. When done remove them on a tissue paper so that it can absorb the excess oil. Top each of the brushetta with this freshly fried Jalapeno cheese bites and enjoy the tangy taste of this easy to execute ‘Brushetta with Asian Pesto.’

Second one ‘ Slider using Mini Burger’ using Macaroni Cheese Nuggets

For this we have to prepare the ‘Chunky Salsa Sauce’ . Take a pan, Heat it. Pour one to two tbsp of olive oil in the pan. Saute some cube shaped red and yellow bell pepper’s After few minutes add one cup of blanched tomato puree and cook for few minutes. Add a tsp of salt, a tsp of Black pepper and two tsp of mixed Italian herbs and a tsp of chilli powder. Mix well. Then remove from the pan and keep aside to cool it. This sauce is the Chunky Tomato Salsa. Then take a few mini burgers and slit them into half. In the lower base part of burger, add a thin layer of the chunky tomato salsa. In the meanwhile deep fry some Macaroni Cheese Nuggets using a deep bottomed pan and enough oil. Keep the fried macaroni cheese nuggets on an absorbent paper to remove excess oil. Put each fried macaroni cheese nuggets onto the layer of tomato salsa and few chopped baby spinach. Close the burger with the top half of burger. Then insert a toothpick onto the burger and top each burger with a green olive. This is the best way to have the slider’s with the mini burger’s which is bite sized and one can easily grab a second helping too.

Post that, the same dishes are served to all the media and bloggers present at the event to taste. We all enjoy these finger licking snack’s and were presented few packets as sampler to be used at home so that we can create our version of some high tea snacks using these vegetarian frozen snacks.

The interactive session paired with these freshly prepared snacks and hot cups of teas ended with the customary selfie with the Chef as well as the group pictures of all those present for the Yummiez High Tea event.

Chef Michael Swamy is a Chef Food stylist, travel photographer and writer based in Mumbai, India. A graduate of the prestigious Cordon Bleu Culinary School, London, Michael worked with several Michelin Chefs who observed his work closely and encouraged him to enter the world of Food Media. His mother having been a successful documentary film-maker, Michael literally grew up in studios, closely studying and handling various aspects of media from handling cameras to editing.
This experience coupled with his culinary expertise helped Michael in creating a sound base for a career in Food Styling and Photography – an art which he used effectively in changing the way people look at food.
As a food writer, he is also the author of “The East Indian Kitchen” which won the Gourmand Award 2011-12 in the Best Indian Cookbook (Technical) category and Easy Guide to pairing Indian food and wine which has also wind a Gourmand Award. As a food stylist, he has worked with several leading publishing houses. He has also recently directed and handled the food aspects of a video series being presented on Yahoo! Cuisines called “Vikas@Home”, featuring Vikas Khanna.
Michael took his expertise further and put it to good use as the Food Consultant for Master Chef India Season 1 & 2. He not only designed the challenges for the show but also headed the food team. He then went on to handle the show “Ravinder’s Kitchen” on TLC with UK-based celebrity chef Ravinder Bhogal, FOX Twist of Taste 3, as also a food show on Sony channel. He has also been featured on Zee Marathi and the Australian Broadcast Channel.
He also writes for the Lifestyle section of Yahoo! India, .caldron and iDiva. In the past, he has contributed to Jetwings & Jetlite, Liquid Magazine (Spenta), Asian Photography, Publishing Houses like Westland & Tranquebar, Burrp, poshvine and several travel books on health, food & drink, travel (local, national & international).
For two consecutive years, Michael has been featured in the list of “50 Master Chefs of India”, (a list of the 50 most prestigious chefs and food personalities in the country) compiled by the Indian Culinary Forum.
Michael has done workshops for many corporates and hotels.
More recently, Michael has launched his own culinary channel on Youtube called Cottagechefculinaire wherein he has showcased food in myriad ways that touch on much more than just recipe videos.
Check out his website here – www.michaelswamy.com